(The following story by Bonita Brewer appeared on the Contra Costa Times website on March 29.)
PLEASANTON, Calif. — A 21-year-old man who was struck and killed by a freight train Saturday night may have intentionally lain across the tracks, according to Pleasanton police.
The Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau identified the man as Charles Maxwell Tice, whose mother lives in Oakland but who was homeless at the time of his death and who grew up in foster care.
The incident occurred shortly before 8 p.m. about 75 yards east of where the tracks cross Santa Rita Road, a major Pleasanton thoroughfare that was shut down for more than three hours Saturday during the investigation.
Tice’s identification and other personal effects had been placed on the ground alongside the tracks.
The incident was reported by train crew members who observed him lying on the tracks ahead of the approaching train. Tice died instantly.
“It is not known why this man was on the tracks, but it is suspected he may have intentionally lain across them,” according to a statement from Pleasanton police, who are investigating the death jointly with Union Pacific Railroad police.
Police Lt. Bob Lyness said pedestrians should never walk along a railroad right of way, as it is both illegal and unsafe.
California leads the nation in railway trespass fatalities, defined as when someone is walking, sitting or standing along the tracks. The state had 90 such fatalities in 2002, according to Federal Railroad Administration statistics.
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said Sunday that the number of fatalities believed to be suicides is not broken down.
Separate statistics are kept for train collisions with vehicles traversing tracks at grade-crossings.
Counseling is being offered to the two-member crew of the Oakland-to-Houston train, Davis said.